Wednesday in the 14th Week of Ordinary Time [385] Genesis 41:55-57; 42:5-7a, 17-24a Psalm 33:2-3, 10-11, 18-19 Matthew 10:1-7

Weekly Guide for Daily Prayer

Jesus summoned his Twelve disciples
and gave them authority over unclean spirits to drive them out
and to cure every disease and every illness.(Mt. 10:1)

The first sentence of the Gospel today captures the strongest message for me: What does God want to be my mission in life?

It is a very deep, if not frightening, question mainly when we are so used to our daily routine. Is my daily routine a response to my mission? I would describe “daily routine” as a “state of stable equilibrium” (I am physics teacher). And I would say that the result of asking “what is my mission?” is to put us in a state of metastable, or even unstable, equilibrium: we are no longer 100% inside our zone of comfort, we are being pulled out and confronted with ourselves. Does my daily routine contribute to the mission God wants from me?

This type of question requires a yes/no answer, which I find too challenging. I feel better if the approach is instead how much of all that I do every day falls into the mission God wants me to pursue. In my case, I interact with few people every day on a regular basis (my family, my colleagues, my students) and do my best to give them the time and energy they deserve, to work together on our projects (whether it is to visit the nearby playground or to advance our research project), to contribute to their growth as individuals of good. Sometimes (actually, often times) I would like to do more, even if I do not know why I get the feeling that I should be doing “more”. But when my kids at night say “thank you” for the day they have had or when my students raise their eyebrows (and smile) because the calculation they have performed makes sense in our research then I feel I am fulfilling the mission God intended for me. I could have been doing better. But I am in the right track. And I commit to do it better.

Dear on line readers, I invite you to reflect upon your mission, smile at what you are doing as it should and give a step in the right direction if you feel your daily routine should be slightly attuned to God’s intentions.